


We do not talk about Cairo

by WildChaser



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Coping Mechanisms, F/M, M/M, Mac is a loyal guy, but for a different reason, but he makes exceptions for Jack, cairo, denial ain't just a river in egypt, they do not talk about Cairo, what happens in Cairo stays in Cairo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 15:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15368076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildChaser/pseuds/WildChaser
Summary: There are some things a man should not know about his work partner, you see.





	We do not talk about Cairo

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Nevcolleil for beta reading!

It has become a running joke between them, however morbid that sounds.

Cairo. The mission that went so sour they won’t even talk about it anymore. Cairo. The place they do not want to return to, not physically, and not even in their memories. At least, that’s what the official version says. And the off-the-record one? That’s only between them.

The thing is – and everybody should well know that – Mac is loyal to a fault. He is a loyal soldier and he was a loyal boyfriend. Definitely not the cheating type. Mac despises the sole idea of such an act and he would never lower himself to that level.

At least that’s what he had thought.

Before Cairo, that is.

 

 

Jack understands Mac’s coping mechanisms, accepts them and even uses some as his own. They work. Maybe that’s why Jack has also begun to hate them the longer they are in use.

Jack has no idea what’s stopping him from destroying this insane safety net of lies they built around Cairo. Probably it’s the fact that that’s exactly the reason why they created it in the first place - it was safe. It held them together, it changed nothing, it stabilized their relationship, worked like a scaffold. But that was mostly for Nikki’s sake, so when she opted out, Jack could have—

Well, maybe not exactly could have. The timing left a lot to be desired. Mac mourned his girlfriend, then desperately looked for her, and then focused on pretending to be ‘fine’ after her betrayal. Not the best timing indeed.

Also, if Mac was alright with pretending that nothing had happened, who was Jack to change it? What gave him the right? Maybe it was actually best for the both of them, for the sake of them staying friends.

And maybe Mac compartmentalized it so well that—maybe, he hid those memories in such a distant corner of his mind that he-- actually forgot what had really happened in Cairo? This idea sounds insane, but the way Mac acts sometimes, most of the time – it makes Jack wonder.

Jack himself, well, he tried. He’s pretty sure those who have no reason to look deeper – those have been deceived by his act. He is a secret agent after all. But Mac is a different matter altogether.

But then again, Mac can be really oblivious sometimes, especially when it concerns him personally. And Jack isn’t sure which bet is safer to place – Mac choosing to forget, or Mac being oblivious and blind.

Good God, he’s prayed for the second one to be true, but the reality tends to point towards the first. And Jack would try to forget as well – he did try, actually, but it turned out he was hopeless at it. Jack even has a pretty good idea why.

Jack simply does not want to forget. He treasures those memories, even as he hides them from the rest of the world. But goddamn it, it was the best night of his life, no point in kidding himself about it. And the moans that Mac tried to muffle into his arm—they left a mark in Jack’s memory. Jack sometimes allows himself to recall them, imagines how it would be to hear them again, mixed with Mac’s breath next to his ear. How nice they would be not suppressed by his arm, his pillow, or by the general shame looming over them.

There are some things a man should not know about his work partner, you see. For example, how his naked hips are shaped, how his voice sounds when he is getting close, or how his tongue tastes right after orgasm. But it’s too late for Jack to un-know it. And it’s apparently too impossible for him to forget.  

 

But maybe let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Let’s get things in order first. No details, of course, since it’s mostly classified. Actually, it’s completely classified, so most of the events may or may not have been completely changed – not the crux of the matter, though.

Cairo was bad for many reasons, but all of it boiled down to one feeling – worry. It started when they got separated, all three of them, Nikki included. She got caught, Mac went to save her, leaving Jack otherwise occupied with some exceptionally secret stuff nobody is allowed to mention. Jack would protest, but the stuff was important. Not more important than Mac, obviously, but it seemed important enough to let Mac handle Nikki’s rescue himself.

That was a mistake Jack might have never forgiven himself for, had it ended otherwise.

When Nikki returned in one piece, but with Mac still gone, Jack’s world stopped spinning on its axis. Nikki was worried, of course, but Jack? Jack was one step from going berserk on the bad guys they had already caught; hell, there was no one that could have stopped him. And Jack did use all means necessary, and that was no exaggeration – but to no avail. At that point Jack would have sold his soul to the devil himself had that option been on the table.

It was the first time Jack fucked up so bad, the first time he lost Mac completely without a trace, the first time Mac went off the radar without Jack at his side. And it was the first time Jack felt so helpless in the face of Mac being in danger.

Even now, when Jack recalls all the things that crossed his mind back then, all the horrible scenarios concerning Mac’s fate, his hands start to shiver. He needs to knead his anti-stress ball for a moment, focus on taking two or three deep breaths, and only then can he find himself back in reality. And if that is now, just try to imagine him in the actual situation those couple of years ago.

Jack was a mess, and that is an understatement of the century.

 

All things considered, Jack should really not be held responsible for what he did the moment Mac came back, scratched and exhausted, but alive and safe.

It was in the middle of the night, Jack just told Nikki to go to sleep and pretended he was going to do the same. But sleep was not an option for Jack, and when the door to his hotel room opened, he just figured Nikki had seen right through him and wanted in on the night of fruitless worry about Mac.

But when he turned around, it wasn’t Nikki that he saw. Jack honestly thought for a second that he fell asleep and his tired mind conjured the silhouette he was so desperate to see. And then Mac opened his mouth and all Jack’s doubts flew over the window.

“Hi Jack, I’m good, I’m back now.” Mac didn’t even pause to take a breath.  “Sorry it took me so long, but I even managed to get…” The stream of reassurances escaping Mac was cut off by Jack running towards him and frantically putting his hands on Mac, roaming them across Mac’s torso, and back, and neck, and head, and—

“Jack, I’m fine, I’ve got just a few scratches, nothing’s broken, no concussion, I promise,” said Mac, trying to interrupt Jack’s insistent inspection.

“Mac, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have let you go alone, I fucked up and—“

“Jack, just breathe, man.” Mac put his hand on Jack shoulder and squeezed it tightly. “I’m alright, nothing bad happened to me, I was just trapped for a moment, but I’m good now. I’m really good.”

Jack forced himself to take a deep breath, then a second one, and then one more. Only after a few long seconds did he start feeling relief slowly building in his gut.

“Mac, you’re alright. You’re here,” Jack said, not really to the younger man, but to himself. “You’re really here.”

Mac knew what was happening; he knew what Jack needed to hear.

“Yes, I’m here. I’m real. Jack, it’s over now. This whole thing is over, I am back.”

That’s when it finally began to sink in, and in that exact moment Jack hit some cracking point, the worry, the stress, the exhaustion, the longing, it all came crushing together to produce one simple act.

Jack grabbed Mac’s neck and kissed him.

And before he had a chance to entertain any thought about what the hell was he even doing, before he could notice how Mac’s mouth tasted, how his skin smelled, before Jack’s brain even registered what his body had done, Mac curled his fingers around Jack’s neck and held him closer together.

It was spontaneous and it was heated; it was fast and slow at the same time, just as it was both quiet and loud.  Jack hadn’t had sex like that before, and hasn’t had it after. They didn’t talk while it lasted, yet they understood each other perfectly. Jack read in between the lines of Mac’s every sigh and every deeper breath. Mac opened before Jack like a book way too eager to be read, let him see what others could only imagine, and Jack took every one of these offerings and returned the gifts tenfold.

Mac had the opportunity to unwind the tension, and Jack had the chance to personally inspect every nook and cranny of Mac’s body – to make sure he’s alright, of course. Jack was thorough in this chosen task, and Mac did not seem to mind in the slightest. The only sounds heard in the darkness were their breaths getting louder and deeper as the night unfolded.

 

The problem with the nights, though, is that they don’t last forever, and when the sun arises, the reality tends to differ from the moonlit illusion.

The reality, in this case, presented as Mac’s girlfriend in the room next door. And even if she turned out to be a traitor not long after, it did not change Mac’s guilty conscience or Jack being the reason for it.

Mac hated the fact that he could no longer think of himself as loyal. Jack hated having made it so, and so he didn’t protest the _‘we do not talk about Cairo’_ solution. Maybe it really was for the best.

 

 

But in the end, if Jack could go back in time, he would repeat this mistake gladly, because this one memory? He wouldn’t change it for the world.

 

 

 


End file.
